Former Minister of Education, Oby
Ezekwesili has predicted that Nigeria will be forced to ‘drink’ her fossil fuel
unless its continued grip on crude oil was brought to an end.

Speaking at the 2017 civil
engineering conference organised by the Abuja chapter of the Nigerian
Institution of Civil Engineers (NICE), Ezekwesili stated that at the moment,
major oil producing countries were diversifying from their dependence on the
commodity while Nigeria looked adamant to the development.

She spoke within the theme of the
conference – ‘Fighting corruption in Nigeria: the role of engineering
profession’, where she also explained that over the years, engineers in the
country had contributed to the corrupt practices that had kept Nigeria from
developing her infrastructure.

She said: “Let me tell you
something, Norway, one of the biggest oil producers has just stashed $1
trillion of her oil money in a sovereign wealth fund.

“I was in Norway recently, and 10
per cent of vehicles used there run on electric. Nigeria should ask herself
these critical questions because very soon, Nigeria will drink her crude oil.”

On the sorry state of
infrastructure and how engineers can contributed to that, Ezekwesili said: “You
are at the heart of public investment. Governance can be looked on as a market
– a supply side and a demand side. Those of you that are part of the supply
side of governance, what quality of governance are you supplying?

“As an engineer in government,
what are the ethics of the profession, how are you upholding the systems of
professionalism that are supposed to determine the value for money in every
engineering process that you are responsible?”

She further asked: “Are you
trying to pretend that you are not part of government when we know that in
governance, the class that has security of tenure is the technocratic class,
and that is who you are. The failure of Nigeria to produce good outcomes will
be squarely deposited on the heads of many of you here.”

Ezekwesili equally claimed that
the engineering profession had abdicated its responsibility to hold government
and its members to account on erratic practices, adding that engineers seldomly
penalised their members found wanting for many of the building collapses in the
country, among other infrastructural failures.

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